~ Loving to Train and Race

Week 5 Boston Training Day 6

Today was a tough day; it was hot (80 degrees) and windy. I think the headwinds hit me harder than the temps. I also took this run back out to Hershey Park, which offers some degree of graded climbs, something much needed in my prep for the Boston topography. The killer thing about the Boston course is the down hill grade, then the sudden graded climbs later on the course. There were parts of the route I ran in which I could feel the difficulty of running down hill. However, climbs are always tough.

I needed to hit the first 6 miles of this run at 6:45 per mile pace, but I struggled a bit today and only managed a pace of 6:49. The more telling part came in the second half of this run, which I needed to hit at a 6:25 per mile pace…but only managed to hit this at 6:39 pace. The last mile was good; I clocked a 6:29 pace. My warm up mile was at an easy 7:57 pace, and my last cool down mile was at an easy 8:14 pace.

I have it in me to hit this gear; I need to find this gear; regardless, I felt stronger after this great training run, but I must admit my disappointment in that I failed to hit my splits. I would love to blame it on other factors, but in truth, I could feel the lactate acid hitting my legs more than I wanted. I am in great shape; I will race well in Boston. I have too many folks on my support team for things not to go well.

…but man, that post run beer (both of them) and burger hit the mark. And, I am not a burger person.

Total Miles today: 14

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4 thoughts on “Week 5 Boston Training Day 6”

Well done Edward, we have got some weeks left to make you even faster! Do not worry, Rome wasn’t built in one day! Long run SLOW please at around 9:12 min/mile. Purpose: training and improving the fat metabolism. A long rung is no speed training!!! Do not forget to drink 150 ml per 30 min like in the race. Not just water but a slightly isotonic drink and not too cold. Have somebody go with you by bicycle with the drinks or run laps! Put your cap into cold water before you start your run! I’m out now with Ingo for a run. I’ll be back online later this day. It’s 44°F here, gerat temperature for running. 80 is hard, Boston will be much cooler… Peter

Hi Karl! I sure you are right. 6:40 is a 2:55:48 in the end. And that’s IMHO the best that Edward can perform in case all conditions (weather, temperature, wind, form of the day etc.) are perfect. We still have some training ahead. Man is no machine and therefore in some way unpredictable. That makes running thrilling! Let’s see! Peter

Edawrd! Nothing against a beer, thats ok. Nevertheless be careful with alcohol at this stage of you training and those heat conditions. Alcohol absorbs water in your body and reduces the speed of recovering or prevents it. Also nothing against a burger. But it makes sense after the workout to fill up the KH storage (heart, liver, muscles) within 40-60 min with pasta, rice, potatoes etc. in order to use the so called supercompensation-effect. The body will store more KH as nessecary as it expects another similar or even stronger strain. In the end you have a significantly bigger store of KH. And the actual race is all about saving KH and using fat instead. The so called “wall” is nothing else than the body switching from a more KH-orientated energy supply to a more fat-based. The bigger your KH-store is and the better you have trained your fat metabolism (long SLOW runs) the bigger is the chance NOT to hit this wall! Also it makes sense to drink every 30 min during runs longer than 90 min. Drink ca. 150 ml. Basicly the drink should provide you salt. Salt makes the water absorbed by the small bovel and salt prevents cramps.
Edward, your are on good and promising way to Boston. Don’t forget: there are always ups and downs in training. You are a human beeing and no predictable machine. And compared to the mass of runners your performance and your will to train with consequence and disciplin is lightyears beyond the average and therefore brilliant and creme de la creme of marathoners! Keep on running and improving. There is still a lot of air upwards as we say.
Also there are a lot of great marathons for you to run: Berlin Chicago etc
All the best from Peter